Good Advise For The Student Of Knowledge On Every Level

I think that discussion, if Allah wills and grants His aid, will certainly bring about benefit. The advanced student will benefit from it just as beginner will be able to benefit from it. Even the best of students is in need of it just as the poorest of students need it. The knowledgeable and understanding will count this as the greatest of gifts.

The first responsibility of the student of knowledge is to rectify his intention and his purpose. He must realize that this action which he is undertaking and this affair which he is seeking is the Shari’ah which Allah has legislated for His slaves, with which He sent His Messengers, and with which He revealed His Books. He should free himself of tainting that with any worldly objective or blemishing it with any inappropriate desire, like the desire to attain wealth, honor, worldly positions of leadership, or some status that he may attain it.

Knowledge is pure and does not accept anything else. It cannot be partnered with anything, and if the filthy odors do not overcome the pure smells, at the very least they will be equal. By mere virtue of this equality, the pure smell will be gone. Pure, delicious water which tastes delightful to the one who drinks it becomes polluted if even a little bit of salty water is mixed with it, to say nothing of what happens if it is mixed with filth. Even the presence of some particles of dust or a fly landing on it will sully its taste, this is if we were to grant that mixing knowledge with other things is like these physical substances and how could it do so!

Whoever wishes to combine between seeking the Dunya and Akhirah in his quest for knowledge, then he is seeking to transgress and he had the grossest of errors. Seeking knowledge is the most noble and highest form of worship. Allah has said: